Inside Iowa State

Sept. 12, 2007

Senate approves arming campus police

by Erin Rosacker

With the Faculty Senate's vote Tuesday, three Iowa State campus groups have endorsed a recommendation to arm sworn and certified police officers at Regents universities. The senate approved the recommendation, 38-27-0, after 40 minutes of debate. A motion to extend discussion was voted down.

President Gregory Geoffroy asked for input from the campus community, including the senate, Professional and Scientific Council and Government of the Student Body. Geoffroy's recommendation, along with those from the presidents at the universities of Northern Iowa and Iowa, will be discussed by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, when it meets Sept. 18-19 in Council Bluffs.

ISU police commander Gene Deisinger and public safety director Jerry Stewart addressed the Faculty Senate prior to Tuesday's vote, fielding questions and comments from both sides of the issue. Ardith Maney (political science) remained opposed to the recommendation, with comments after Stewart's presentation and during open discussion of the motion.

"It sounded like just another request for guns," Maney said. "It seems to me that we have a situation now that we can live with."

Questions from senators included requests for statistics and data, clarification of procedures, changes in strategies since the Virginia Tech incident and methods of prevention.

"This proposal is not intended to reduce or replace any other important initiatives that deal with prevention or support services such as threat assessment, counseling services," Stewart said. "If anything, I believe those need to grow."

Without any public discussion, ISU's P&S Council approved the measure 31-2-2 on Sept. 6, while GSB senators voted 23-5-0 in favor of the recommendation on Sept. 5.

Non-tenure research position tabled

Senators voted unanimously to postpone voting on a resolution authorizing a new non-tenure eligible research faculty position, with a stipulation to put it to a vote by the Dec. 11 meeting. The resolution was introduced in April, the final senate meeting of the last academic year.

"This will allow us to spend some more time to talk about an issue that's very important," said senate president Sedahlia Crase.

With a vote of 38-27-0, the Faculty Senate voted to endorse a recommendation to arm police officers at Regents universities.